I have carted around the country various and sundry scraps of steel salvaged from scrap bins at the machine shop where I worked in my youth. I had plans for several pieces that rattled around in my mind for decades. One of those ideas was to build a mid-sized Mauser-type bolt action for cartridges bigger than .22 rimfire and smaller than .30-06.
I was always stalled by the need to broach or edm the locking lug raceways in the receiver. A little over a year ago, I thought of a way to mill them.
The receiver and bolt are made from cold drawn C1045.
The work was done on a 1898 patent date B&S No. 0 horizontal plain mill, a 1940s Logan 922 lathe, a 1940s Craftsman drill press and hand tools. Illustrations follow:
Another issue that had kept me from starting the project was the clearing of the metal between the lugs on the bolt. I milled most of the unwanted steel from the bolt lug area, then shaped a lathe tool to the bolt radius and used the lathe as a shaper to finish that area. Tidied up with a file and abrasive paper. That area just hangs in mid air behind the barrel when locked up, so it really isn't critical and wasn't worth the decades of avoidance.